Learn Microsoft Power Apps - Second Edition

Learn Microsoft Power Apps - Second Edition

by Matthew Weston, Elisa Bárcena Martín
Released September 2023
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781801070645

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Book description

A step-by-step guide that will help you create, share, and deploy applications across your organization using Microsoft Power Apps Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook

Key Features

  • Build apps from scratch to solve real-world business scenarios
  • Learn how to keep app data secure with expanded coverage on Dataverse
  • Incorporate AI into your app building process using AI Builder and Copilot

Book Description

Microsoft Power Apps provides a modern approach to building low-code business applications for mobiles, tablets, browsers, and Microsoft Teams. The second edition of Learn Microsoft Power Apps will guide you in creating well designed and secure apps that transform old processes and workflows.

Learn Microsoft Power Apps starts with an introduction to Power Apps to help you feel comfortable with the creation experience. Using screenshots from the latest UI, you will be guided through how to create an app, building your confidence to start developing further. This book will help you design, set up, and configure your first application by writing simple formulas. You'll learn about the different types of apps you can build in Power Apps and which one applies best to your requirements.

In addition to this, you’ll learn how to identify the right data storage system for you, with new chapters covering how to integrate apps with SharePoint or Dataverse. As you advance, you’ll be able to use various controls, connectors, and data sources to create a powerful, interactive app. For example, this book will help you understand how Power Apps can use Microsoft Power Automate, Power BI, and Azure functionalities to improve your applications. Finally, you will be introduced to the emerging Power Apps Copilot tool, which uses artificial intelligence to accelerate the app building process.

By the end of this Power Apps book, you’ll be ready to confidently develop lightweight business applications with minimal code.

What you will learn

  • Understand the Power Apps ecosystem and licensing
  • Take your first steps building canvas apps
  • Develop apps using intermediate techniques such as the barcode scanner and GPS controls
  • Explore new connectors to integrate tools across the Power Platform
  • Store data in Dataverse using model-driven apps
  • Discover the best practices for building apps cleanly and effectively
  • Use AI for app development with AI Builder and Copilot

Who this book is for

This book is intended for business analysts, IT professionals, and both developers and non-developers alike. If you want to meet business needs by creating purpose-built apps, this book is for you. To get the most out of this book, it is recommended that you have a basic understanding of Microsoft 365 as you will interact with various elements of it while developing apps.

Table of contents

  1. Preface
    1. Updates to Power Apps
    2. Who this book is for
    3. What this book covers
    4. To get the most out of this book
    5. Get in touch
    6. Share your thoughts
  2. Introducing Power Apps
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Understanding Power Apps
    3. Understanding Power Apps licensing
      1. Seeded apps
      2. Per-user plan
      3. Per-app plan
      4. Developer plan
    4. Understanding the types of apps
      1. Canvas apps
      2. Model-driven apps
      3. SharePoint List Form apps
      4. Microsoft Teams Power Apps (Dataverse for Teams)
    5. The Power Apps start screen
      1. The Home screen
      2. The Learning Resources screen
      3. The Apps screen
      4. The Create screen
      5. The More menu
        1. Tables
        2. Choices
        3. Connections
        4. Custom connectors
      6. Flows
      7. Chatbots
      8. AI models
      9. Solutions
    6. Starting with templates
      1. Leave request app
      2. Help desk app
    7. Using Power Apps Studio
      1. Power Apps Studio menus
      2. Power Apps formula bar
      3. Tree view
        1. App
      4. The Power Apps canvas
        1. Breadcrumb
        2. Zoom
      5. Looking at the Properties area
        1. Properties
        2. Advanced
    8. Summary
    9. Questions
    10. Further reading
  3. Creating Your First Canvas Power App
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Creating a mobile app
    3. Creating a tablet app
    4. Changing the app settings
      1. Exploring the General settings
        1. Changing the name and description
        2. Setting the app icon
        3. Autosave
        4. Other settings
      2. Changing the Display settings
        1. Using the phone app
        2. Using the tablet app
      3. Accessing Upcoming features
        1. Preview features
        2. Experimental features
        3. Retired features
      4. Using the Support settings
    5. Lab 1
      1. Creating a blank phone app
        1. Creating the identity of the app
        2. Saving the app
    6. Summary
    7. Questions
  4. Creating Apps in SharePoint
    1. Technical requirements
    2. SharePoint field types supported within Power Apps
    3. The app creation process
      1. Preparing your list within SharePoint
      2. Creating your app
      3. Exploring the auto-generated Power Apps app
        1. Browse screen
        2. Detail screen
        3. Edit screen
      4. Customizing forms
        1. Modifying forms
        2. Advanced options
      5. Publishing the app
      6. Removing the Power Apps form
    4. Lab 2
      1. Activity 1: Creating the SharePoint list
      2. Activity 2: Creating the list form app
    5. Summary
    6. Questions
  5. Publishing and Leveraging in Power Apps
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Publishing a Power App
      1. Version history
    3. Accessing your app through SharePoint Online
      1. Getting the Power App ID
      2. Adding the Power App to SharePoint
    4. Accessing your app through Microsoft Teams
      1. Adding a Power Apps tab
      2. Adding a Power Apps Teams app
        1. Exporting the app manifest from Power Apps
    5. Using the mobile app
      1. Using the app
      2. Pinning to the home screen
    6. Lab 3
      1. Activity 1: Installing the mobile app
    7. Summary
    8. Questions
  6. Exploring Controls
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Control properties
    3. Text controls
      1. Labels
      2. Text input
      3. HTML text
      4. Rich text editor
      5. Pen input
    4. Input controls
      1. Button
      2. Date picker
      3. Presenting multiple choices
        1. Dropdowns
        2. Combo box
        3. List box
        4. Radio
      4. Boolean controls
        1. Check box
        2. Toggle
      5. Numerical inputs
        1. Slider
        2. Rating
        3. Timer
        4. Containers
    5. Data controls
      1. Gallery controls
      2. Forms
      3. Media
      4. Charts
    6. Icon controls
    7. Lab 4
      1. Activity 1: Building basic branding
      2. Activity 2: Adding the name of the app
    8. Summary
    9. Questions
  7. Exploring Formulas
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Introducing functions and formulas
      1. The function browser
      2. Using the formula bar
      3. Basic interactions
    3. Interacting with text
      1. Replace and Substitute
      2. Searching and matching
      3. Regular expressions
    4. Using numbers
      1. Rounding
        1. Round
        2. RoundUp and RoundDown
      2. Other numerical functions
    5. Working with dates
      1. Formatting dates
      2. Calculating dates
    6. Using conditions
      1. If
      2. Switch
    7. Variables
      1. Global variables
      2. Context variables
      3. Reviewing variables
    8. Lab 5
      1. Activity 1 – Creating a branding variable
      2. Activity 2 – Adding personalization
      3. Activity 3 – Launching our app within SharePoint
    9. Summary
    10. Questions
    11. Further reading
  8. Exploring Reusable Controls
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Introducing components
      1. Creating components
      2. Understanding basic properties
      3. Creating custom properties
      4. Understanding scope
      5. Setting the property defaults
      6. Adding the component to a screen
    3. Using the component library
      1. Creating component libraries
      2. Using a component from the component library
      3. Updates to components in the library
    4. Lab 6
    5. Summary
  9. Working with Data
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Creating and interacting with collections
      1. Filling collections
      2. Updating collections
    3. Displaying data
      1. Displaying data in a gallery
      2. Displaying data in a data table
    4. Connecting to a data source
    5. Using forms
      1. Changing form mode
      2. Changing state with formulas
      3. Submitting the form
    6. Lab 7
      1. Activity 1: Creating the collections
      2. Activity 2: Adding the Gallery
      3. Activity 3: Adding the Form
    7. Summary
    8. Questions
  10. Introducing Connectors
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Understanding standard connectors
    3. Understanding premium connectors
      1. Understanding custom connectors
      2. Creating a custom connector from scratch
        1. The General tab
        2. The Security tab
        3. The Definition tab
        4. The Test tab
      3. Importing an OpenAPI file
      4. Creating a connector from within Postman
    4. Summary
    5. Questions
    6. Further reading
  11. Using GPS in Power Apps
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Placing maps into your apps
      1. Leveraging Bing Maps
        1. Using Power App controls for mapping parameters
      2. Leveraging Google Maps
        1. Using longitude and latitude for mapping parameters
    3. Capturing geographic position
      1. Finding the location
      2. Finding direction
    4. Lab 8
      1. Activity 1: Updating the data source
      2. Activity 2: Creating a new asset
      3. Activity 3: Displaying a map
      4. Activity 4: Adding navigation
    5. Summary
    6. Questions
    7. Further reading
  12. Working with Images and Barcodes
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Understanding how to store images within Power Apps
    3. Using the camera control
      1. Capturing the camera image
      2. Capturing from an icon
    4. Using the add picture control
    5. Understanding the barcode scanner
    6. Lab 9
      1. Activity 1: Updating the data source
      2. Activity 2: Capturing bar code data
    7. Summary
    8. Questions
  13. Securing Your Power Apps
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Securing your data
      1. SharePoint
      2. Dataverse
      3. SQL Servers
      4. Which to use?
    3. Applying in-app security
      1. Locally controlled access lists
      2. Azure Active Directory (AAD) security groups
    4. Sharing your app securely
    5. Lab 10
      1. Activity 1: Creating the SharePoint group
      2. Activity 2: Assigning the permissions
      3. Activity 3: Setting the app to respond to permissions
    6. Summary
    7. Questions
  14. Working Offline
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Detecting a connection state
    3. Working with local data
      1. Saving data locally
      2. Loading data from the local cache
    4. Implementing offline capability
      1. Implementing the on-start process
      2. Working offline
      3. Synchronizing online and offline data
    5. Lab 11
      1. Activity 1: Adding a connection indicator
      2. Activity 2: Adding data to an offline cache
      3. Activity 3: Tracking new additions while offline
    6. Summary
    7. Questions
  15. Using Power Automate with Power Apps
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Understanding flows
    3. Creating flows through the Power Automate service
      1. Creating a cloud flow from templates
      2. Creating flows from blank
        1. Using actions
        2. Testing your flow
    4. Returning data to Power Apps
      1. Calling a flow within Power Apps
    5. Lab 12
      1. Activity 1: Creating a flow for when a new grocery is added
      2. Activity 2: Adding the flow to the app
      3. Activity 3: Creating a reminder flow
    6. Summary
    7. Questions
    8. Further reading
  16. Using Azure with Power Apps
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Introducing Microsoft Azure
    3. Integrating with Azure Active Directory (AAD)
    4. Implementing Azure Automation
      1. Creating an Azure Automation account
      2. Preparing your Azure Automation account for use
        1. Installing modules
        2. Storing credentials
        3. Storing variables
      3. Creating runbooks
      4. Using Azure Automation in Power Apps
        1. Calling CreateJob
        2. Getting the job’s output
    5. Using Azure Functions
      1. Using a queue
      2. Creating an function
    6. Summary
    7. Questions
    8. Further reading
  17. Visualizing Data
    1. Technical requirements
    2. The use of data
    3. Using chart controls
      1. Using a column chart
      2. Using a line chart
      3. Using a pie chart
    4. Embedding Power BI in your app
      1. A brief intro to Power BI
      2. Creating a basic report
      3. Embedding the report into your canvas app
    5. Lab 13
      1. Activity 1 – Formatting the data
      2. Activity 2 – Displaying the chart
    6. Summary
    7. Further reading
  18. Introducing Artificial Intelligence
    1. Technical requirements
    2. What is AI Builder?
    3. What are the different types of AI models?
    4. How is AI Builder licensed?
    5. Exploring the capabilities
    6. Using the basic models
    7. Creating a custom model
    8. Using a custom model in our app
    9. Summary
    10. Questions
  19. Introducing Microsoft Dataverse
    1. Technical requirements
    2. What is Dataverse?
      1. Differences from other data storage solutions
        1. 1. Scalability
        2. 2. Data security
        3. 3. Disaster recovery
        4. 4. Cost-effectiveness and energy efficiency
        5. 5. Accessibility
        6. 1. No technical knowledge required
        7. 2. Simple data migration
        8. 3. Analytics and auditing
        9. 4. Create apps without coding
        10. 5. Automatic workflows
    3. Working with environments and solutions
      1. Environments
      2. Solutions
    4. Data migration
    5. Dataverse for Teams
    6. Lab 14
      1. Activity 1: Export and import solutions
      2. Activity 2: Migrate with dataflows
    7. Summary
    8. Questions
    9. Further reading
      1. Environments
      2. Solutions
      3. Dataflows
      4. Gateways
      5. Custom connectors
      6. Dataverse for Teams
  20. Introducing Model-Driven Apps
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Understanding Dataverse
      1. Creating a Dataverse database
    3. Understanding the CDM
      1. Introducing tables
      2. Exploring a table
    4. Modeling data
      1. Creating a table
      2. Creating columns
      3. Creating table relationships
    5. Building a model-driven app
    6. Lab 15
      1. Activity 1: Creating the database
      2. Activity 2: Modeling data
    7. Summary
    8. Questions
    9. Further reading
  21. Creating Model-Driven Apps
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Introducing views, forms, and dashboards
      1. Creating views
      2. Creating forms
      3. Creating dashboards and charts
    3. Creating a model-driven app from scratch
    4. Using your model-driven app
    5. Lab 16
      1. Activity 1: Creating views
      2. Activity 2: Creating charts and dashboards
      3. Activity 3: Building a model-driven app
      4. Activity 4: Navigating through records
    6. Summary
    7. Questions
  22. Exploring Environments and Data Policies
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Introducing environments
      1. Viewing your environments
      2. Creating environments
    3. Setting security on the environment
      1. Managing security without a Dataverse database
        1. Environment Admin and Environment Maker
      2. Working with security with a Dataverse database
        1. Creating security roles
        2. Assigning roles to users or teams
    4. Introducing data policies
      1. Creating data policies
    5. Summary
    6. Questions
  23. Introducing the Future of Power Apps
    1. Introducing Microsoft Copilot
    2. How Copilot in Power Apps will help you
    3. Using Copilot in Power Apps
    4. What’s next?
    5. Summary
    6. Questions
  24. Good Practices for Creating Power Apps
    1. Don’t leave security until last
    2. Consider your data source options carefully
      1. Excel
      2. SharePoint
      3. Dataverse
      4. And, not or
    3. Plan your user journey
    4. Wireframes
    5. Design
    6. Develop for reusability – remember to use components
    7. Updates
    8. Summary
    9. My final thoughts
  25. Appendix
  26. Other Books You May Enjoy
  27. Index

Product information

  • Title: Learn Microsoft Power Apps - Second Edition
  • Author(s): Matthew Weston, Elisa Bárcena Martín
  • Release date: September 2023
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781801070645